


Lightning Strike

by FollowTheFirefly



Category: Assassin's Creed
Genre: Can be taken as a Kiddway fic, potential OOC
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-02
Updated: 2016-01-02
Packaged: 2018-05-11 05:41:48
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5615911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FollowTheFirefly/pseuds/FollowTheFirefly
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Mary's strange behavior during a storm leaves Edward with many questions.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Lightning Strike

**Author's Note:**

> So I based this one off of my headcanon that Mary has a fear of lightning. I'm not entirely sure how I came to that conclusion, but this is how I think it would have happened.

“Looks like a storm’s comin’ in,” Anne commented from where she sat on the veranda of the manor in the pirate’s cove, resting her head against the stone wall behind her as she kept her eyes on the sky above.

Edward glanced up from the bottle of rum that he had been drinking and realized that Anne might be right: the darkening clouds on the horizon certainly looked menacing. The sun looked like it was trying to poke its way through the clouds, but it wasn’t having much luck. As if that was anything new on the island, though.

“Jus’ our luck,” Edward had completely forgotten that Mary was even there. He looked over to where she was sitting on the railing, her legs dangling over the edge. She kept eyeing the sky suspiciously with a mixed expression between annoyance and something that Edward couldn’t determine. Was it fear? 

“Just means you’ll have to go out later,” Anne said, turning around so that she was facing Mary.

“Where are you going?” Edward hadn’t heard about this before.

“Nowhere in particular, Mary shrugged, still keeping an eye on the sky. “Just out explorin’.”

“Ah,” Edward said slowly, noticing Mary’s increasing uneasiness, not mentioning that she'd had months to explore the island.

“Are you okay, Mary?” Edward had forgotten that Mary had revealed her identity to Anne a few weeks prior and the use of her real name threw him off.

“Hmm,” Mary nodded as she stood up and started to walk away from the manor. 

“Where are you going?” Edward asked, wondering why Mary was leaving so early.

“Got some work to do,” Mary said with a wave of her hand. “I’ll be at the tavern later if ya need me.”

“Probably drinking,” Anne said once Mary was out of earshot.

“Nah, she doesn’t go get drunk so early in the day,” Edward shook his head.

“You mean like you do?” Anne arched an eyebrow at Edward, who already had his third bottle of rum in hand.

“Not all the time,” Edward tried to sound casual, but he didn’t sound very convincing.

“But didn’t you think she was acting strangely?” Anne’s expression turned serious.

“A bit, but I don’t think its anything to worry about,” Edward responded, drumming his fingers on his knee. “She’s always been cryptic, hasn’t she?”

“But something seemed off this time,” Anne said, eyes on the increasingly darkening sky. “Maybe it was the weather?”

“You know she wouldn’t let a little storm bother her,” Edward said, fiddling with the hidden blade on his wrist.

“We’ve never actually been with her in a storm, have we?” Anne responded, eyes on Edward.

As if it had been waiting for a sign, a bolt of lightning flashed across the sky seconds before large drops of rain started falling. Edward looked upwards with an expression of annoyance on his face, but Anne was looking a bit more concerned.

“Good timing,” Edward commented, finishing his bottle of rum and tossing it aside.

“Maybe we should make sure that she’s okay?” Anne suggested. 

“Okay, let’s give her ten minutes to see if she comes back to the manor,” Edward retorted, standing up and stretching his arms above his head.

“Why would she come back to the manor?” Anne asked, clearly questioning Edward’s logic.

“Because she never likes exploring in the rain,” Edward said. “She always comes back to the manor the second the clouds darken in the sky.”

“And you didn’t think that was an example of her not liking the weather?” Anne sounded a bit exasperated. 

“Look, let’s wait a bit to see if she shows up,” Edward sighed. “If she doesn’t show up, then we’ll go look for her.”

“Fine, but we’re waiting inside,” Anne said as she stood up and made her way to the back door.

Ten minutes passed in near silence, the only sound coming from the rain pelting on the roof and as much as Edward hated to admit it, he did find the whole situation a bit peculiar. On any other day, Mary would be back and studying charts or looking over inventory records. Yet for reasons unknown to Anne and Edward, Mary did not show up. 

After another ten minutes, Edward had to admit that Anne was right: something wasn’t right.

“Now will you admit that we need to go find her?” Anne asked Edward as he stood looking out of the window into the steady downfall of rain outside.

“You might have a point,” Edward said. 

“I told you something was off,” Anne retorted, idly twisting a strand of hair around her finger.

“Okay, I’ll go see if I can find her,” Edward stood, stretching his arms in front of him. “Stay here in case she comes back?” 

“Fine,” Anne said, walking over to the sofa and sitting down, still keeping a watchful eye on the window. “I’ll be waiting.”

Edward nodded and made his way out of the manor. Without even thinking, he found himself making his way down the stone steps and into the little village. It didn’t take him long to reach the tavern. After all, it wasn’t hard to find by the normally crowded docks, which were suddenly quite deserted due to the sudden storm. It seemed like a few of the tavern’s regular patrons were braving out the rain, huddled in a corner near the back as they took shelter from the elements under some loose plants and empty barrels of whisky. However, a quick look around told Edward that Mary was nowhere to be seen.

“That’s odd…” Edward mused as he paced slowly back and forth in front of the tavern. “She said that she’d be here…”

After thinking to himself for a moment or two, Edward decided that he should search his own ship. He and Anne and Mary had all been on the ship for several weeks before they docked at the pirate’s cove. It was possible that Mary had simply forgotten something that she needed on board.

Jumping over the wooden railing, Edward saw the deck of his ship deserted. The only living soul he saw was his quartermaster at the helm, his hands busy with what appeared to be several yards of rope.

“Captain,” Adéwalé nodded as Edward climbed the short set of stairs to the helm.

“Adé,” Edward nodded in return. “You haven’t seen Kidd recently, have you?”

“He just went into the cabin,” Adéwalé responded as he leaned against the railing. “Said something about needing one of the merchant logs.”

“Thanks,” Edward said as a loud clap of thunder boomed overhead. “That was a loud one.”

“Master Kidd didn’t seem too happy about the rain,” Adéwalé seemed just as confused as Edward was about the whole situation.

“Yes, Anne and I were just discussing that,” Edward said absentmindedly. “Go and tell the crew we won’t be doing any plundering tonight.”

“And why is that, Captain?” Adéwalé straightened up, dropping the rope at his feet.

“I’ve got a feeling that this might turn out to be a hurricane before long,” Edward explained. “Going about pirating in such weather doesn’t seem like a good idea to me. I’ll fill the crew in first thing in the morning.”

“Aye, Captain,” Adéwalé nodded as he walked off the helm and jumped over the railing onto the dock, heading into town.

With his quartermaster occupied, Edward went down to the captain’s room. He hesitated at the door, deciding on knocking before entered so as to not startle Mary by his unexpected arrival. He heard her muffled voice from inside the room, which he took to mean, ‘come in,’ and opened the door.

“Just me, Mary,” Edward assured her, though he couldn’t see her when he looked around the dimly lit room. “Adé’s gone into town.”

“An’ what are you doing here?” Mary’s voice sounded from the back of the room.

“Well, it’s my ship, isn’t it?” Edward said as he followed the sound of her voice. “Where are you, anyway? It’s awfully difficult to have a conversation with someone you can’t even see.”

“Back here,” Mary crawled out from under the writing desk in the back as if it was nothing out of the ordinary.

“And are you going to tell me what you were doing hiding under my writing desk?” Edward queried, more than a little puzzled.

“Dropped my quill,” She said simply enough.

“Your quill,” Edward wasn’t believing any of this.

“Aye,” Mary nodded. 

“Right, what’s really going on here?” Edward asked, growing more agitated by the second.

Mary had opened her mouth to respond when a loud clap of thunder rang out, shaking the ship back and forth, followed by a bright flash of white as a bolt of lightning crashed to the earth. Mary jumped at the sight of it and scurried back under the writing desk again.

“Lightning, of all things?” Edward had finally figured it out, though it was still a bit strange to him. After all, he’d seen her in many ship raids and she’d never shown fear then. 

“I don’t like it,” Mary shook her head.

“Because it’s so bright?” Edward crouched down and scooted underneath the desk so that he was sitting next to her.

She shook her head.

“When I was still in England as a kid, my neighbour’s house got struck by lightning,” she explained, staring straight ahead. “The whole house went up in flames, all with the people inside, sleeping in their beds.” She shifted a bit and pulled her knees up to her chest. “And it spread to the barn and that was burnt to the ground.”

“And you saw all of that?” Edward assumed.

“Aye,” Mary nodded. 

“And you didn’t think to tell me of this when we started our little expedition?” he questioned.

“I was going to bring it up, but I never got around to it,” Mary responded.

They said nothing after that, simply sitting in silence as the rain pelted down outside with the occasional roar of thunder overhead.

“You know, if you tell anyone about this…” Mary started to say some time later when she and Edward had crawled out from under the desk and were sitting on the deck.

“You’ll unman me?” Edward echoed the words she’d said to him several months earlier.

“You remembered,” Mary smirked.

“Anne was worried about you, you know,” Edward told her. “You left in a bit of a hurry this afternoon.

“As if I wanted to,” Mary shrugged.

“She means well,” Edward said, laying out on his back, hands behind his head. “You know she wouldn’t say anything if you didn’t want her to.”

“No, I suppose not,” Mary frowned. “And I suppose I do owe it to her.”

“You do,” Edward nodded in agreement. “She’s waiting for us back at the manor. I suppose we should head back before it gets too late. Now that the storm’s let up, at least.”


End file.
